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"To the honor and glory of Francis Marion and his men who under extreme hardships did such valiant service for the independence of their Country in the War of the American Revolution." --MEMORIAL TABLET AT GEORGETOWN, SOUTH CAROLINA, ERECTED BY GEORGETOWN CHAPTER, D.A.R.

Dedication

To MARGOT who with me, from the PeeDee, Snow's Island and Georgetown to Belle Isle, the Santee, Monck's Corner and Charleston re- traced the pathways trod by FRANCIS MARION

First words

A clumsy ship's boat rolled lazily in the wave-crinkled, deep-blue waters of the Gulf Stream, miles from the nearest land. The tropical sun of mid-afternoon beat down like the blast from an open furnace.

Quotations

Chapter I "The ship in which he sailed foundered at sea from injuries received from the stroke of a whale of the thorn-back species. Her crew, six in number, escaped in the jolly boat saving nothing but their lives." --W. G. Simms.

Chapter II "Your miserable body shall be consumed by fire and your impious ashes scattered to the winds of heaven." --Edict of Expulsion.

Chapter III "Thrown upon their own thoughts, taught by observation and experience, the same results of character -- firmness, temperance, good sense, sagacious foresight, and deliberate prudence -- become conspicuous in the career of both Marion and George Washington." -- W. G. Simms.

Chapter IV "The emergency was pressing and Governor Lyttleton called out the militia of the Province. They were requested to rendezvous at the Congarees, about 140 miles from Charleston. To this rendezvous Marion repaired, in a troop of provincial cavalry commanded by one of his brothers." -- Wm Dobein James.

Chapter V "Scarcely had the detachment penetrated the defile when the war whoop gave the signal. The savages, still concealed, poured in a deadly fire by which no less than twenty-one of this fated band were prostrated." -- Horry Memoirs.

Chapter VI "In my opinion this kingdom has no right to lay a tax on the colonies. ... America is obstinate. America is almost in open rebellion! Sir, I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of people so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves would have been instruments to make slaves of the rest." -- Wm. Pitt on Stamp Act (1766)

Chapter VII "What shall we do for money, Captain Marion?" "Why, we must get it from the Assembly." The Assembly was applied to, but alas! "could not help us with a single dollar." -- Horry Memoirs

Chapter VIII "Why, here is not a single line of retreat, and a half hour's bombardment will blow the guns out of the emplacements!" -- General Charles Lee

Chapter IX "Devil take them! Their shot came so swift and so hot And the cowardly dogs stood so stiff, sirs, That I put ships about and was glad to get out Or they would not have left me skiff, sirs!" -- Old song on Admiral Parker's Defeat

Chapter X "That his [Lafayette's] services be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connections, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States." -- Act of Congress, July 31, 1777.

Chapter XII "It was the great good fortune of the State that Francis Marion was not among those who fell into captivity in the fall of Charleston." -- W. Gilmore Simms.

Chapter XIII "Had Marion remained, could Gates have listened, we are very sure there would have been no such final, fatal disaster as suddenly stopped the misdirected progress of the Continental Army." -- W. Gilmore Simms.

Chapter XIV "A moment in the British camp -- A moment -- and away; Back to the pathless forest Before the peep of day." "Song of Marion's Men" -- William Cullen Bryant.

Chapter XV "The fiery Tarleton, who could not catch him, dubbed him the Swamp Fox. On one occasion Marion was almost surrounded by British dragoons in an open field. His only means of escape was to force his horse, 'Ball,' to leap a high fence and a four-foot ditch on the opposite side. His splendid horse cleared both fence and ditch, and Marion, bidding the British 'Good morning,' made his escape." -- Heriot Clarkson

Chapter XVI "Our fortress is the good greenwood, Our tent the cypress-tree; We know the forest round us, As seamen know the sea.

We know its walls of thorny vines, Its glades of reedy grass, Its safe and silent islands Within the dark morass." "Song of Marion's Men" --William Cullen Bryant.

Chapter XVII "At present I am badly off for intelligence. I wish you, therefore, to fix some plan for procuring such information and conveying it to me with all possible dispatch." -- General Nathaniel Greene to Francis Marion

Chapter XVIII "Now let us sing, God save the King! And Gainey, long live he! And when he next doth ride abroad May we be there to see!" -- Parody sung after Gainey's ride into Georgetown

Chapter XIX "The place where Marion won his most signal victory was on the Parker's Ferry Road on the south side of the Edisto River." -- A. S. Salley.

Chapter XX "On that memorable 14th of December, 1782, we entered and took possession of our capital [Charleston] after it had been two years seven months and two days in the hands of the enemy." -- Horry Memoirs.

Chapter XXI "Marion's plantation, Pond's Bluff, lay within cannon-shot of the battlefield at Eutaw where his Brigade won new laurels. All that remains of the plantation structure today are a few stones in the wall foundations of an old barn on the Simons' plantation in Eutawville." -- The Author.

Chapter XXII "To fight the enemy bravely with the prospect of victory is nothing; to fight with intrepidity under the constant impression of defeat and to inspire irregular troops to do it, is a talent peculiar to yourself." -- General Nathaniel Greene to Marion.

Last words

While he lived, mere youngsters followed him into ways of hardship and deadly danger and glory. The glamor of his gallantry, the something ineradicably boyish in his whole make-up and career, still lives and calls to boys today. Here lies his truest claim to immortality.